


Of His Own Agency And Will

by Leonawriter



Category: Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VII
Genre: Flash Fic, Gen, Implied/Referenced Mind Control, It's redemption but Sephiroth is also still a creepy ass, Post Advent Children, Redemption, of a strange sort at least
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-15
Updated: 2017-12-15
Packaged: 2019-02-14 23:32:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 873
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13018527
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Leonawriter/pseuds/Leonawriter
Summary: Of all the things Cloud could have anticipated, standing in the same room as the man who had tried to kill him and destroy the Planet several times over while said man was sat with his knees up and stating calmly that he did not intend to carry on with those sorts of actions was not one of them.





	Of His Own Agency And Will

“So. You’re back.” A nod. Hair spilling over Sephiroth’s face. “And you’re saying... that what happened before, _won’t_  happen again?”

Another nod, although this time more of an incline of his head.

Cloud could see something of a smile on that mouth, the one that had taunted him so many times before, and he wanted to rail at how unbelievable and unrealistic this all was, wanted to take the shoulders of the man sat on the floor in front of him, and shake them and and say _you don’t just do this, not after all you’ve done._

Instead, his voice came out as cold as the snow on Mount Nibel, and he heard himself say something else.

“Tell me why any one of us should believe you.”

 _Try me_ , came the unspoken words. _One wrong word. Try me, and I’ll show you that I’m not afraid to protect every single thing in this world from you again, and again, and again, no matter how many times it takes._

A full minute ticked by.

“I will not disrespect you by giving you false assurances, Cloud.”

He shuddered at the sound of his name coming from that man, and hoped that it didn’t appear too obviously on his face. 

“Then why even bother with pretending at all? Tell me that. Why not just try and kill me and have done with it?”

Someone else might have been worried at the words - but needn’t have been. 

 _You’ve already beaten him once, right? Then this should be a cinch_ , came through his mind. Zack had been right. He was strong enough. He had been back then, and he would be any time he was needed to be.

“Because I... remember not being - entirely on my own within my mind.” There was that smile again. It made Cloud want to hit its owner’s face just to get rid of it. “Something that of all people, I am sure that _you_  would understand all too well.”

The word _puppet_  wasn’t said, but it might as well have been, and Cloud’s eyes narrowed.

“Don’t you _dare_  try pulling that shit with me.”

Sephiroth laughed - although it was markedly different to the laughter that he vaguely remembered hearing during their fights, and nothing like the way that he distantly remembered from something or other before Nibelheim. It was mocking, however, and that was familiar enough.

“I wouldn’t dare. Did I not say that I would not give you reassure you of things that could not be promised? There is a difference between us, as much as there is similarity, Cloud. Through my cells, you have a strong link to Jenova. And yet, you fight her, with everything you have.” Something about his voice sounded curious, almost whimsical. “I made no such efforts,” Sephiroth continued, staring into the middle distance, hands noticeably clenching where they were wrapped around his knees. “I watched as the world burned, because I was angry, because there was nothing left for me, and because I saw nothing within it that I... cherished... enough to turn back for.”

“And you think that’s going to _help_  your case?”

Sephiroth snorted, the sudden waft of air from his nose blowing the hair that had fallen in front of his face in a manner that Cloud would have found outright comical on any other person.

“No.”

Said bluntly, offering nothing else to soften the blow or explain. Nevertheless, Cloud waited.

Eventually, Sephiroth sighed, his pale hair dancing in the air once again.

“There was too little of Jenova left to retain my previous state upon my revival. I believe there was an... altercation. I did not understand at the time what it meant, but my next moments of awareness, you were there for, the cells that we share having drawn me to you. I focused for just long enough on my own existence and will to live rather than everything that I had desired, passed down to me from her, and it was enough that, with her cells so scarce, she could... no longer keep her hold on me.” 

The disturbing thing was how his expression made him look for an instance like he felt actual _pain_  from that separation. Even now, when he’d supposedly been trying to say that he wasn't about to go right back to finishing what he’d started.

“Is that good enough for you?”

Cloud’s eyes narrowed again.

“Not hardly. I trust you about as far as I could throw you, but that isn’t the point, and it’s not just up to me.”

Sephiroth’s head tilted back, and that same smile from before was clear on his face once again. 

Cloud didn’t like to admit it, but that smile was one he recognised. He saw it every so often on some of the others - Reeve, for one - remembering things they’d had to do, that they’d do again, no matter how awful. 

On someone like Reeve, it made sense. On someone like Sephiroth, it seemed _wrong_.

“Given that you threw me bodily into the Nibelheim reactor while unenhanced and impaled on my sword, I take that as a high compliment,” he heard as he left, making him slam the door a bit more viciously than he had intended.

**Author's Note:**

> So this was all based on ideas I'd had floating around of "yes, I think that Sephiroth wasn't entirely doing things of his own will at the end of Crisis Core and during FFF7, but no, I don't think he'd suddenly be repentant and asking for forgiveness the moment he's completely free of Jenova, and no, I don't think Cloud would be all that accepting of it, but he wouldn't suddenly turn into a super villain himself and deny someone help, either."
> 
> As a friend of mine put it, there's "Sephiroth wasn't a passive party who didn't engage with the plot and events after all past a certain point" but also, "Jenova was totally fucking with him." and they both are real things.
> 
> Honestly, I don't know if I'm going to do more for this, since I have other things I'm working on and it's only meant to be a flash fic to get the idea out of my head, but it was fun.


End file.
